From the Start - Part 13 | From Adam to Noah (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 14)

This morning and we will in front of the wrong I'm good this

morning we will be in Genesis chapter 5 and as I said we will

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

cover the entire chapter today. So we're flying now.

We'll slow down again next week. Don't worry.

Today is actually largely genealogy.

So that's the reason we're not, we're not going to examine every

single verse here. But Genesis 5 is where we'll be.

And Genesis 315 feels like such a long time ago in our study,

right? But it was last year.

But it's important that we don't forget it.

Genesis 315 said, I will put enmity between you and the

woman, in between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

So this was the first time that the good news was proclaimed in

Scripture. And it's something that we call

the proto evangelion, the very first good news.

But it also speaks to the inaugurated war between good and

evil, 2 offsprings at war with each other, and the offspring of

the woman will continually be in conflict with the serpents until

the war is completely ended. Last week, as we looked at

chapter 4, we examine Cain's line, which of course begins

with Cain and it ended with the evil Lamech.

And as the chapter closed, we were given a little glimmer of

hope. Maybe things won't always be

like this. In Genesis 425, we saw Eve

looking forward to the fulfillment of the promise, it

read. And Adam knew his wife again,

and she bore a son and called his name Seth.

For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead

of Abel, for Cain killed him. So Eve was hopeful that that

this son of hers, Seth, Seth would be the one to to make

everything right again, and he would be the one to strike the

serpent's head. The King's line was way

different than Seth's line. King's line had no mention of

God, but Seth's line does. As Genesis 426 reads.

At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

That verse serves as a as a signal that something's coming

in chapter 5, and it connects God's faithfulness from Adam all

the way through to Noah, and then ultimately to all those who

belong to the line of Noah through their faith in Jesus

Christ. So if you're able, would you

stand as we read from our opening text this morning?

Genesis 5 will read verses one through 5.

This is the book of the generations of Adam.

When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God, male

and female. He created them and he blessed

them and named them man when they were created.

When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered his son in his own

likeness after his image and named him Seth.

The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years and

he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam

lived were 930 years and he died.

You may be seated so this this is a review that we start out

with here at the beginning of chapter 5, Genesis 126 through

28 said God said, let us make man in our image after our

likeness. And then he goes on to say

exercise dominion over fish, birds, livestock and land

animals. And then verse 27 says, so God

created man in his own image in the image of God.

He created him male and female. He created them and God bless

them. So there are four specific

statements made here in in chapter 5 that tie explicitly

back to these verses in chapter 1.

God created humanity. First of all, God created

humanity in the likeness of himself, and then he created

them male and female. And lastly, he blessed them.

So all these statements find find their roots back in chapter

1. So this section serves as a as a

bridge connecting the creation account to the section following

this, which is Noah and the flood narrative.

It's like Moses is saying, OK, let's try this again but from a

different angle this time. But when we read this passage,

something jumps out to you, especially if you are new to the

book of Genesis. All the ages listed are way

longer than than we would think is humanly possible.

Right? Verses 3 through 5 read when

Adam had lived 130 years. So at 130 years, Adam fathers a

son, then it goes on to say in his in his own image and named

him Seth. And days of Adam after he

fathered Seth were 800 years. And the final conclusion is that

Adam lived 930 years and then he died.

So Adam fathered a child at 130 years old, which is amazing,

right? And he lived a total of 930

years. As you read through the entire

chapter, you will see that the ages listed in this chapter are

primarily in the 9 hundreds, and a few fall a little short of

that or significantly shorter than that.

But all of the numbers, every single one is a number of times

the normal lifespan that we would expect today, which is 78

years for men and roughly 81 years for women.

Critics of the Bible take these numbers as as evidence.

Oh, look at these numbers. These can't happen.

So we can toss out the Bible. We can completely discount what

the Bible says because of these numbers here.

Now I'd like to remind you that if you believe what we have

already read in the first 3 chapters of the Bible, that it's

nothing to believe that people live to being nearly 1000 years

old. The God who created the world

out of nothing. He created the world out of

nothing. So it's easy enough for him to

have humanity live to such a long age.

The Greek speaking Babylonian historian Barossas riding near

the time of Alexander the Greats.

He mentioned the names of 10 kings who each lived thousands

of years before what is termed a great deluge, Of course, which

is the flood. The Sumerian kings reigns were

said to have been between 18,600 years and 43,200 years.

Now those aren't actual years, but when we convert those

numbers from the Sumerian system, doing a bunch of

mathematical things that I don't understand because I'm not a

math person. But when we convert the numbers

from the Sumerian system to our normal decimal system, then the

numbers completely line up with what we see revealed to us in

scripture. Some people trying to do the

Bible a favor have suggested alternative options.

Oh, perhaps the numbers are symbolic.

Well, maybe it actually meant moon cycles.

Or maybe the Hebrew, the Hebrew calendar back then was was

significantly shorter. So that that's how you end up

with these large numbers. You know, because the Hebrew

calendar was shorter than our Gregorian calendar that we live

by now. Scripture doesn't need your

help. There are a couple reasons we

can expect to see long lives at this point in time.

First of all, while the wheels of death were set in motion

immediately, it may well have been possible that it it took a

long time for the impacts of sin and death to become a full

reality in humanity, especially before the flood.

See, we're only just a few generations at this point from

God's perfect, complete creation of humanity, so they easily

could have lived longer. Second, we can assume that the

first humans, Adam and Eve, had partaken of the fruit of the

Tree of Life. They've been told they could eat

of every tree, and so I would think they probably ate of the

entire garden before they'd even gotten to the Tree of the

Knowledge of Good and Evil. And of course this seems to make

sense because God's response then after they partake of that

tree is to is to block their access to the tree of life.

The numbers that the ages that are listed here should be taken

at face value. Theologians have long believed

that there are significant changes that will come after the

flood, both in the geology of the earth and and the biology of

its inhabitants, and we'll look at some of those things when we

get to the Flood. Now, throughout this narrative,

the text utilizes the format when so and so had lived X

years, he fathered blank. So and so lived after he

fathered blank and had other sons and daughters.

Thus all the days of so and so were X years, and he died.

This specific formula is used nine times throughout this

chapter, but on the 7th time, on the 7th time that it's used, it

pauses to draw our attention to Enoch.

Look there at verses verses 21 through 24 in your Bibles when

Enoch had lived 65 years. By the way, this Enoch is

different than the Enoch from from Cain's line.

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.

Enoch walked with God and after he fathered Methuselah 300 years

and had other sons and daughters.

Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.

At this point the formula would normally say and he died, right?

But it doesn't. The text says in verse 24 Enoch

walked with God and he was not, for God took him.

The break in motif gives us pause.

It causes us to stop and examine Enoch for a moment.

Yes, Enoch is special in that he is the father of Methuselah, who

at 969 years of age is the oldest person recorded in

Scripture. But there's more to Enoch than

just that. In verses 22 and 24, twice it

says that Enoch walked with God. Enoch walked with God.

He's the first example of someone to to walk with God

explicitly. Scripture regularly uses the

metaphor of walking to describe our relationship with God.

Genesis 69 As we'll see here in a couple weeks, Noah walked with

God. Deuteronomy 86 Keep the

commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways.

Isaiah 3021 You shall hear a voice behind you saying, this is

the way. Walk in it then.

Romans 64 We were buried therefore with Him by baptism

into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead

by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of

life. And this is just a small sample

size of the huge numbers of verses that speak to our walk

with God. So our relationship with God is

understood in in terms of walking.

So what does it mean to say that Enoch walked with Glock with

God? Clearly, as we'll see, as we'll

examine in a moment, this is something exceptional, something

that that we don't see in in all of the other generations that

are listed. First of all, to walk with God.

It suggests intimacy. It suggests intimacy in

relationship. We haven't seen this kind of

intimacy for hundreds of years, since before the fall in the

garden. Adam and Eve would presumably

walk with God, as it says they had heard God walking in the

garden. So it sounds like they were

accustomed to walking with Him. They had fellowship with Him.

There was intimacy. There was closeness in their

relationship. But when sin entered this scene,

the first humans had hid themselves from God.

That closeness had been broken. Now here we are a couple

chapters later, and Enoch is walking with God.

We don't know the details of of his walk with God, what exactly

that might have looked like, but we can conclude Enoch had a

lifestyle characterized by his devotion to God.

Walking with God also means living in faith.

It means living in faith. Enoch had faith in God.

He would have had faith that Yahweh was going to keep the

promise he'd made to Adam and Eve, that that Eve would bear an

offspring who would defeat the serpent.

This intimacy and relationship and living in faith led to Enoch

being taken up into heaven. Verse 24 continued Enoch walk

with God and he was not an interesting phrase for God took

him. Some have taken this to mean

that God took Enoch in the sense that we might say God took so

and so home. That's one possible

interpretation of that phrase, but that is not what is intended

here. First of all, at this point the

formula would normally say and he died instead for for Enoch

the formula diverges and says and he was not to meet meaning

and he did not exist. If death were in view here,

Moses would have written and he died just like he has written

eight other times in this chapter.

But clearly Enoch is exceptional in the text, so it makes the

most sense to understand the statement to mean that God

transported Enoch straight to heaven, bypassing death.

Hebrews 11/5 shed some more light on this.

It reads By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not

see death, and he was not found because God had taken him.

Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God.

The writer of Hebrew settles the matter for us.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.

Death has always been assumed. Ben Franklin famously said.

In this world, nothing can be certain except for death and

taxes. Thanks Ben Franklin, we

appreciate it. That is true for the vast

majority of humanity, but there are three people in all of

history who've not experienced death in any sense of the word.

Those three people are Enoch, Elijah, and can you guess the

third one, Not Jesus. He did die in some sense, right?

Any guesses as to the third one? I don't.

The rest of us in the end. Melchizedek.

Melchizedek. Because in Hebrews 11 is it in

Hebrews 11, I don't remember where it is.

It Hebrews 7, that's where it is.

It says he doesn't have beginning of days or end of

days. There can be some discussion on

that, but a lot of theologians suggest that Melchizedek also

did not die and we'll look at Mechazedek probably in a few

months when we get there. The fact Enoch walked with God

and and didn't see death is certainly special in and of

itself, but if we look a little deeper we'll see even more

happening under the surface. A comparison of the line of Cain

versus the line of Seth. Moses goal in chapters 4 and 5

was to draw our attention to the differences between the

descendants of Cain and descendants of Seth.

Cain's line of faithful faithless living leads to

rebellion, and Seth's line of faithful living leads to

righteousness. Let me say that again.

Kane's line of faithless living leads to rebellion.

Seth's line of faithless living leads to righteousness.

I just realized I completely skipped over a verse there.

Sorry about that Banu. Some of you may have saw it on

the screen. That was Hebrews 11/6.

The Kane's line is markedly, drastically different than

Seth's line. Now Enoch is the 7th generation.

If we started at Adam, Adam is the first generation we continue

to countdown. Enoch is the 7th generation

through Cess line. You may recall from last week

that if we go through Keynes line, the 7th generation from

Keynes line was Lamech. So this is an intentional design

pattern in both Keynes and Seth's genealogies.

Pause at the 7th generation. The text calls attention to the

2 lines, the wicked line of Cain contrasted with the righteous

line of Seth. Cain's house is characterized by

the murderous Islamic, whereas the lion, the sons of Seth, are

shown to be righteous. Of course, they're still

sinners, as we will see. What scripture reveals to us

about Enoch stands in stark contrast to the way of Cain.

Cain sought to establish his own legacy.

He was fixed on outward success and accomplishments.

But Enoch shows us that when we seek honoring God as our legacy,

then that'll lead us to go about life differently.

We have a different heart posture when our legacy isn't

based on credentials, but rather based on character.

We act differently when we're trying to please God and not

please others. Enoch shows us that walking with

God is the best way to shape our legacy.

These two genealogies in chapters 4 and five share 2

names in common, Enoch and Lamech.

This Lamech, coming from the line of Seth, stands in stark

contrast to the vile Lamech we examined last week.

And if you look at verses 28 through 32 in your Bibles, we

have a new Lamech. When Lamech had lived 182 years,

he fathered his son and called his name Noah, saying out of the

ground that the Lord has cursed. This one shall bring us relief

from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.

Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other

sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Lamech were

777 years, and he died after Noah was 500 years old.

Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now Lamech is the 9th generation mentioned and he bears no

resemblance to the Lamech descended from Cain.

That one was a malevolent, violent, vengeful murderer and

polygamist. While this Lamechs life is is

marked by prayerful hope that God is going to act.

He'd fathered this child and he named him Noah because because

he's looking for rest. The name Noah means rest.

Rest is an appropriate name when you're hoping that the son of

yours will help make life easier.

Lamech, as we just read, was lamenting the sorry state of

man. How hard, how burdensome life

was under the consequences of the cursed ground.

Life had beaten him up and and he was looking for a reprieve.

He's clearly cognizant of the curse and promise found in

Genesis 315. So he, like Eve was, was hopeful

that this offspring of his might be the one to conquer the

serpent. Lamech lived 777 years and then

he died. Now the Astutes Bible scholar

looks at that and says, oh, that's important.

That's a symbol. Yes, that is a symbol, but I

think we can still take it as an actual number.

This number draws our attention, first of all to the other

Lamech. His vengeance was 70, sevenfold.

But more than that, this Lamech living to 777 years of age, it

points to the final complete generation before God would

bring judgement on humanity. Lamex generation was the last of

those who could have, who could have known the very first

humans. From this point on, connections

back to the Garden could no longer be a first hand telling

directly hearing from Adam and Eve, but would now be a third

person relaying of the truth of God's character and God's

promise. In chapter 5 closes after Noah

was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

We'll examine Noah more in a couple weeks, but this brief

introduction to Noah ends with his fathering three sons.

The text almost seems incomplete, as as you expected

to keep going after it, says Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

You expected to tell us more about them, or at least tell us

about their deaths. But that's not what happens

here. No deaths are listed in this

portion of the genealogy, only births.

When genealogies recount deaths as they do so, it's a reminder

that things right now are are not the way that they are

supposed to be. But when they recount births and

leave it open-ended like this, it's a sign that that God is

still in control. God is still working here and

there is still hope for humanity.

Shem, Ham and Japheth, we can say, are part of God's rescue

plan. Now, of course, one line in

particular will be singled out. Shem.

But they are part of God's rescue plan.

They're the ones through whom God will begin his restarts on

humanity. He'll judge the world in the

coming chapters, but he won't just leave it at that.

Noah's family will be used to bring rest, comfort, and rescue

to the world, albeit not in not in a manner any of them could

have hoped for or anticipated. So what do we get out of a

passage like this? If I had to hazard a guess, I

would venture to say most of us aren't holding out hope to just

be translated straight into heaven.

Well, some might be, you know, of course, oh, maybe the rapture

will happen in our lifetime. You know, there's kind of just

this faint, faint hope in that. But I think most of us probably

expect that we will face death at some point.

Here are three things we can take away from this passage.

First we need to walk with God by daily fellowshipping with

Him. Walk with God by daily

fellowshipping with him. When you walk with God, you

include him in everything, the UPS and the downs of life.

You navigate life together. You spend time with one another,

you talk, you listen. Intimacy with God is only

developed through time spent. Faith isn't a weakened

obligation, a simple check mark on the box of Christian duties.

Intimacy is only fostered in the day in and day out moments of

life, treating intentional prayer time and time in the Word

as absolutely essential to my survival, my source of life.

So fellowship with him. Second, maintain integrity in a

corrupt environment. Maintain integrity in a corrupt

environment. Enoch lived in a wicked

generation before the flood, yet he still remained faithful,

speaking about people who walked in the way of Cain.

Jude 14 and 15 reads. It was also about these that

Enoch the 7th from Adam prophesied, saying, Behold, the

Lord comes with 10 thousands of His holy ones to execute

judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their

deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an

ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly

sinners have spoken against him. Jude was recalling something not

found in our text here in Genesis, but which sheds more

like light on who Enoch was. Enoch was apparently, we learned

here he was a prophet and he had spoken of God's judgment over

the people of his time. Destruction was coming on the

evil generations that existed at his time, and Enoch lived in the

midst of these people in spite of the fact that he had

descended from a more or less righteous line.

He didn't go with the flow, rather he went against the

grain, and he didn't allow the evil influences to sway him

towards unholy, rebellious living.

Enoch walked in an upright manner in spite of the corrupt

people of his time. I suspect that many of you in

your work environments have people who are far from God

around you. So the challenge for you is to

continue to walk in integrity, to demonstrate integrity, and to

speak for the truth. Next, we can learn lastly to

rest in God. Rest in God.

There is a rest that we experience while still here on

this earth, in our in our mortal bodies.

And then there's a rest to come in the future when our faith is

fully realized. The rest we experience now comes

to us through 2 main avenues. 1st is through obedience.

Arrest comes through obedience. Hebrews 318 And to whom did he

swear that they would not enter his rest?

But to those who were disobedient.

These were the ones who rebelled against God.

When? When you rebel against God's

ways and standards, then you can't have peace with God.

And without peace with God, if you don't have peace with God,

you will never have true rest. The second means to finding rest

for your soul is through faith. It's through faith, hearing God

speak and responding with an attitude of obedience and

actions of dependence upon Him. Christ rest for your soul is

directly proportionate to your level of trust in Him.

As you grow in your knowledge of God, your knowledge of Jesus,

your relationship with Him and and grow in your trust in Him,

then the rest that you experience in your life will

increase. Practically speaking, this means

living with the assurance of faith, trusting that God rewards

those who earnestly seek him. So walk with God.

Walk with him day in and day out.

Don't take a day off of walking with God.

Spend time with Him. He is worth it, and in Him

you'll find peace. You'll find peace with others

and rest for your soul. So pray that God would give you

a passion for obedience and for the faith to trust in His

provision for that path. Let's bow our heads and close

our eyes. This morning we'll spend time

preparing for communion here in a moment, but even now we can

begin that process as we consider our walk with God.

What is your walk with God? Is it marking?

Ticking off a check box each Sunday morning I went to church?

Or do you truly experience God in your own personal life?

Do you truly find fellowship with Him in prayer, in the Word,

in the quiet and meditation, or do you find it hard to connect

with God? They say our our public worship

should be an overflow of our private worship time, our time

that we spend walking with God, fellowshipping with him in our

own hearts in our quiet time. Then that should be the driver

of our Sunday morning faith. So my hope this morning is that

that's the case for each of us. God, we thank you that we can

look at the life of someone like Enoch even in the midst of a

genealogy. These genealogies have purpose.

They point out something to us, and may we choose to follow

Slime of Seth, a line of Enoch people who call upon the name of

the Lord. It's in Jesus name we pray,

Amen.